Full Legislature Approves Jackson Laboratory Deal

An artist's rendering of The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine,…

October 26, 2011|By CHRISTOPHER KEATING

HARTFORD —

Both chambers of the state legislature voted Wednesday night in favor of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's controversial plan to recruit the nonprofit Jackson Laboratory to Farmington with a $291 million offer to construct a new building and create 300 direct jobs over the next 10 years.

On a strict party line vote, the Senate voted 21 to 14 in favor of the measure. Sen. Edwin Gomes, a Bridgeport Democrat, missed the vote because he is recovering at his home following a recent heart attack. The measure was immediately sent to the House of Representatives, which approved the bill by 101 to 41 on a mostly party line vote after 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.

All Democrats voted in favor of the measure, and they were joined by 8 Republicans, including the entire Greenwich delegation of Representatives Livvy Floren, Lile Gibbons, and Fred Camillo.

"Yes, this is about jobs - more than 6,800 of them,'' Malloy said in a statement. "But it's also about a lot more than that. It's about making Connecticut a leader in a growth industry.''

With manufacturing and other industries in decline in the Northeast, Connecticut needs to invest in the fast-growing bioscience industry in order to kick-start the economy to improve the state's 8.9 percent unemployment rate, they said. State officials project that the venture will be so successful that it will eventually create more than 6,600 jobs over the next 20 years, including other bio-science companies and restaurant, real estate, and retail jobs that are needed to service those workers.

Sen. Theresa Gerratana, a New Britain Democrat, said that Jackson promises to make future advances in the field of personalized medicine to help in the treatments of Alzheimer's disease, cancer, and Down Syndrome, among others. The scientists in Farmington would study the interaction of genes in an attempt to make medical breakthroughs.

"What is genomic medicine? It is the medicine of the 21st century. It is the medicine of the future,'' Gerratana told colleagues on the Senate floor. "The doctor can understand the very code of the cells of the disease. This is the way that medicine will go. ... I'm so happy to know that we're not going to be competing just in New England, but in the country and in the world.''

But Republicans said that the state was spending far too much money at $291 million, plus another $120 million in interest on the bonds, that includes a free building for Jackson. They noted that, as a nonprofit, Jackson will not pay any corporate taxes to Connecticut in the future or any local property taxes to Farmington on the University of Connecticut Health Center campus. They said Connecticut needs to be cautious about spending more tax money in a state that recently had the largest tax increase in its history and has the highest per capita debt in the nation. They added that the deal is too lopsided to spend nearly $300 million for 300 direct jobs. Without architectural drawings, they said that the state cannot know the cost of the building, even though it has been set at $144 million for the structure and $47.3 million for scientific and technological equipment. The plan is designed to provide a jolt to Connecticut's economy, which has not created any net new jobs since the creation of the state income tax 20 years ago.

Sen. John Kissel, an Enfield Republican, said, "Waiting 10 years for 300 jobs is preposterous.''

Sen. L. Scott Frantz, a Greenwich Republican, said he was happy that Jackson intends to come to Connecticut, noting that some board members of Jackson live in his district in lower Fairfield County.

"I think it's just terrific that they're interested in Connecticut,'' said Frantz. "However, with a capital H, ... this is no ordinary economic development deal. We have to be very, very careful about putting this many resources into something with an unclear outcome.''

Frantz said the Jackson deal is moving so fast that it is like a locomotive barreling along at 200 miles per hour down the track.

A highly successful, millionaire merchant banker in Greenwich, Frantz is deeply familiar with venture capital and taking risks in the business world.

"The higher the risk, generally, the higher the reward has to be,'' Frantz said. "There is no provision for Connecticut or UConn to share in the fruits of their labor ... any kind of royalty sharing.''

"Don't go putting too much into something until you can really get your hands around the investment,'' Frantz said on the Senate floor. "Economic development is a passion of mine. I've been involved in it for nearly 20 years in the state of Connecticut. ... This will spur lots of jobs in addition to the ones that are going to be placed there by Jackson Labs. We don't know what that ratio will be.''

Frantz said on the floor that the normal multiplier in such deals is 5.7, but the job multiplier in the Jackson case is 10. But state economic development director Catherine Smith and others say that the multiplier in this case is actually 2.